N. Lauderdale Approves Charter School Building

June 29, 1999|By SEAN CAVANAGH Staff Writer

It sprang from ideas dreamed up in family living rooms and sketched out in rough form on city officials' napkins and notepads.

And on Monday, the North Lauderdale City Council gave final approval to a new, $9 million charter high school building, culminating years of planning. The decision brought satisfaction to residents like Jackie Bees, 16.

"I was just a little fish in a big pond," said Bees of her days at a larger high school, before transferring to North Lauderdale Academy High School last year. "Here, no one is a little fish."

The junior-to-be is one of about 220 students who attended the academy -- the first city-run charter high school in Florida -- this past year, its first in operation. The public school was located in a converted shopping center on Rock Island Road.

The council's move clears the way for construction of a much larger three-story facility just up the street, to be built on a former baseball diamond on Kimberly Boulevard.

City leaders say the new school will offer lower class sizes and will operate without the need for local tax revenue. "It's called getting more for less, and that's what this school is supposed to do," Mayor Jack Brady said.

The council voted 4-1 in favor of the new facility. Councilman Mike Natale opposed it, citing concerns that the city later might have to make costly changes to its design. "I don't object to building a new school," he said. "I just think we're premature in how we're getting it done."

Scheduled to open in August 2000, the new facility will serve more than 700 students, drawing them from North Lauderdale and surrounding cities such as Tamarac, Margate and other areas, city leaders say. The city's goal is to make the new school self-sustaining, able to prosper on money it receives from the state for each student it serves -- and without the use of additional tax dollars.

In recent months, city and state leaders have become increasingly doubtful about the long-term availability of two other, smaller sources of state funding, which might have brought at least $400,000 apiece to the school. Support in Tallahassee for those funds may be waning, some of those officials have warned.

North Lauderdale leaders also tried recently to quell the concerns of some parents with children at the academy who have complained that the city and the company that manages the school, Charter Schools USA, are not being responsive to their concerns about the facility.

"Everybody has to be a little patient and give this school a chance," Councilman Michael Zeitchik said.

Sean Cavanagh can be reached at 954-572-2009, or scavanaghsun-sentinel.com.